On Thursday, East Carolina head coach Blake Harrell joined The Gary Harris Show on Tide 100.9 to discuss the upcoming East Carolina versus Alabama game.
East Carolina is coming off of a 9-4 season under Harrell, and the Pirates are the highest-rated non-Power 4 team that an SEC program will face this season, per ESPN’s Football Power Index.
Harrell talked about the mindset that East Carolina has and how the Pirates plan to handle the external factors like being a 28.5-point underdog in Tuscaloosa.
“There’s a lot of external factors that go into this thing that people are like, ‘28.5, SEC team, playoff team last year that won a playoff game,’ and we just talk to our team about controlling the controllables,” Harrell said. “Control who we are and how we play the game, playing with great effort, playing with great energy, play with edge.”
The East Carolina head coach later said that the Pirates have to go out and play their brand of football this Saturday in Tuscaloosa.
Harrell highlighted the goals that he and the team have set for the season and shared what he wants to be able to do on Saturday and in 2026.
“We want to be able to run the football,” he said. “We want to be able to stop the run. We want to be able to create turnovers and do all those things. Let’s see if we can do that early in the season.”
Shortly after, Harrell shared his thoughts on the job that Kalen DeBoer is doing at Alabama and what he thinks of the Crimson Tide ahead of Saturday’s game.
“Alabama is certainly a good football team,” Harrell said. “Coach DeBoer has done an exceptional job there. Already got 20-plus wins, and they got a heck of a talented roster. I think the receiver Ryan Coleman-Williams is as good as there is in the country. I think they got a couple of first-round draft picks.”
Harrell added that he believes Alabama quarterback Keelon Russell is going to have a solid season, and he said that Alabama’s secondary is fun to watch.
